Greece names new cabinet

Greece's new Prime Minister Antonis Samaras (C) and Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos (R), flanked by security and newly-appointed ministers, arrive at the Greek parliament for their first cabinet meeting.

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Greece has ended a two-month-long political stalemate, naming a new cabinet as the debt-ridden country continues to grapple with a falling economy.
The announcement was made on Thursday, a day after conservative New Democracy (ND) party leader Antonis Samaras took office as prime minister following a narrow victory over radical leftists, AFP reported.
Meanwhile, a joint statement by conservative, socialist, and moderate leftist parties in the new coalition government said Greece aimed "to revise terms” of a controversial European Union-International Monetary Fund bailout deal “without endangering the country's European course and its place in the euro."
The new cabinet also promised to “create the conditions to take the country out of the crisis for good and out of dependence on loan agreements in the future.”
Led by the pro-bailout ND, the coalition enjoys the backing of the socialist Pasok party and the small Democratic Left party, which have barred their MPs from taking part in the government.
Vassilis Rapanos, the chairman of the National Bank of Greece, has been given the post of the finance minister. He is a former economics professor, who served as the economy ministry when Greece adopted the euro as its currency in 2001.
On Sunday, the ND narrowly won Greece’s parliamentary elections by securing 29.7 percent of the vote, according to the country’s Interior Ministry.
The anti-bailout far-left Syriza party garnered 26.9 percent of the ballots to come in second in the elections, the ministry noted.
Greece has been at the epicenter of the eurozone debt crisis and is experiencing its fifth year of recession because of the government-introduced harsh austerity measures, which have left about half a million people without jobs over the past years.
One in every five Greek workers is currently unemployed, banks are in a shaky position, and pensions and salaries have been slashed by up to 40 percent.
Greek youths have also been badly affected and more than half of them are unemployed.
The delayed resolution of the eurozone debt crisis, which began in Greece in late 2009 and infected Italy, Spain, and France last year, is viewed as a threat not only to Europe, but also much of the rest of the developed world.
KA/MN/HN